PROGRAMS
By offering a variety of culturally responsive programs, The Concilio aims to help the North Texas community succeed and thrive in their daily life.
EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT
Our evidence-based, culturally responsive programs are led by trusted facilitators, many of whom were once program participants. These dedicated team members build trust and meaningful relationships with families, so they can overcome barriers and build a better future for themselves and their children.
Education empowers the Latino community by giving the next generation the tools they need to succeed. We encourage and provide support for parental engagement inside and outside of the classroom.
Pase
The Concilio partners with schools, districts, and communities to help parents and their children thrive.
PASE is a 9-week program that shows parents how to navigate homework, paperwork, and other important subjects so they can take an active role in their child’s academic success. We’ve helped over 18,000 parents and 24,000 students become more engaged in their children’s education. Students with parents who graduated from the PASE program had a high school graduation rate of 90.2% – 7% higher than the Dallas County average. Best of all, 78% of the 90.2% of PASE students who graduated high school went on to further their education at the post-secondary level.
PASE sets families up for success. Classes are offered on-site for elementary, middle, and high school parents. In order to best serve all parents, we offer our program in both Spanish and English and offer both morning and evening sessions. At the end of the program, parents and their families participate in a graduation ceremony. When children see their parents graduate, it plants the seeds for a life-long love of education.
As immigrants, we hope to achieve the dream we have for our children and see them succeed in this country. The Concilio’s PASE program taught us the importance of being involved in our kid’s education. And we have seen our hard work pay off. Our oldest sons have graduated from high school with honors, and one received a full scholarship to attend The University of Texas at Arlington. Now we are attending PASE to learn more and help our youngest son succeed as well.
– Juana Rodriguez and Daniel Pardo
PARENTS AS LEADERS (PAL)
The 30-week PAL program sets the stage for children's academic success by providing parents with children ages 0-5 with the information, resources, and training needed to foster children's early literacy and reading abilities, social-emotional, language and motor skills.
The program builds the foundation for parents to become effective partners with teachers, the school, and the community throughout their children's academic careers.
LENA START
Interactive talk is a key factor in healthy early brain development.
But by age 4, low-income students are 18 months behind their more affluent peers in language development. That gap still exists at age 10 and continues through high school. LENA Start teaches parents how to increase conversation with their children during the first three years of life, and optimize language development.
Confidence and
the tools to be kindergarten ready.
ABRIENDO PUERTAS/OPENING DOORS
Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors is the nation’s first evidence-based comprehensive training program developed by and for Latino parents with children ages 0-5.
It uses a two-generation approach that places parents in leadership roles as their child’s first teacher coupled with evidence-based practices to meet the needs of young children. At the core of its design is an educational philosophy known as Popular Education, developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, a pedagogical approach that builds connections between everyday life experiences, larger social issues, and actions parents decide to take to yield positive outcomes for their families.
ACCESS IT: OVERCOMING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
In response to COVID-19 and the transition to online learning, The Concilio offers a 6-lesson technology support course for parents via our Access IT Program. It is a new curriculum designed to help bridge the digital divide for families whose children are learning on tablets and laptops instead of in classrooms. The curriculum includes how to access Wi-Fi, digital citizenship, and how to best use online platforms like Zoom and Google Classroom.
Access IT helps parents become familiar with technology basics needed to support students and communicate with their children’s teachers and school.
Free mini lessons in English and Spanish for parents of young children on topics including child development, technology, preparing for school and more. To access these lessons,
LATINO CAPACITY BUILDING
Our goal is to increase cultural intelligence by providing data driven training, strategies and resources that build capacity in organizations that work with Latino and Hispanic populations. We train in culturally sensitive strategies and provide concrete resources to help non-Latinos engage in a respectful and productive way with Latinos, Hispanics and their communities.
We build capacity and advance Latino equity by Analyzing, Engaging, Advocating and Activating the DFW and North Texas communities, by:
Engaging the community through our State of Latino report and the Data Blogs
Advocating and training through our Cultural Competency Training and the Young Latino Professionals of Dallas
Activating the community through our Think Tank Series and the Power of Latinos summit
RESEARCH
We have an ongoing program to analyze and aggregate data surrounding current issues that affect the Latino/Hispanic community and the population The Concilio serves. Our goal is to position The Concilio as a data-driven thought leader and to expose areas that allow decision makers to better plan and address current and forecasted issues for the Latino/Hispanic community in DFW.
STATE OF LATINO REPORT
Every two years, The Concilio publishes the State of Latino Report, to highlight the reality of Latinos in our region, and engage the community, decision makers, and organizations. Our goal is to provide data that can inform decisions, program development, and policy to address the areas of need. In alternate years, we publish a whitepaper of yearly findings.
DATA BLOG
Our bi-monthly Data Blog engages the community at large, expands on the report and explores relevant new and ongoing issues. Our goal is to provide data capsules for current events and issues relevant to the Latino/Hispanic community.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING
We offer training in Latino/Hispanic Cultural Competency for organizations that interact at any level with the Latino/Hispanic population, as a population being served, employed or marketed to. Our goal is to provide data-driven training, strategies and resources that build more culturally competent organizations and corporations, with a special focus on education, health, and corporate advancement.
YOUNG LATINO PROFESSIONALS OF DALLAS
This program provides a space for professional development, access to resources, and authentic and powerful connections for Young Latino Professionals in North Texas to support their professional growth in the labor force pipeline. This network of young Latino professionals meets up for professional development and networking 5-7 times per year.
PENSANDO JUNTOS THINK TANK SERIES
This Spring and Fall series held at The Concilio is an organized space for decision makers in the topics of Education, Health, and Wealth to discuss and ideate on topics affecting the Latino population in our region. Our goal is to convene stakeholders (target DEI) and drive conversations that lead to actions to move the needle in DFW and North Texas. We aim to establish The Concilio as a thought leader and cooperation convener.
POWER OF LATINOS SUMMIT
This summit includes a full week of engaging events, high profile speakers, and community activations to bring stakeholders together to learn, ideate and commit to the advancement of Latinos in DFW and North Texas. Our goal is to provide a space for public/private cooperation in North Texas through a data driven, action oriented series of events and a framework to increase equity and advance Latinos in our region, and to establish The Concilio as a thought leader and cooperation convener. This summit takes place once a year in late spring. Our next Power of Latinos Summit is scheduled for May 15-19, 2023.
- Creating Equity Seminar – Panel and Think Tanks
- Cultural Competency Master Training – Workshop at UTD
- YLPD Workshop and Focus Group – Resume writing and asking for a raise, how to navigate challenges in the workplace, and get tools and resources needed to advance the corporate ladder
- Cultural Competency Training LMS launch for Health and Education
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & OUTREACH
An individual is only as strong as their community. Community outreach is a big part of how we connect Latino families to a wide range of resources. From campaigning to spreading healthcare resources and information, we make knowledge accessible to empower the Latino community.
FAMILY RESOURCES
When families in the Latino community face severe personal, financial, mental health and health-related challenges, we help people get back on their feet. We assist by offering guidance on eviction prevention, drive-thru pantries, SNAP, EBT, and more. We empower people to take back control of their lives, when life’s circumstances become overwhelming.
We believe in giving people a hand when they need it, and the Latino community needs better access to health, crisis, and financial services. As a Texas Health and Community Service Partner, The Concilio goes above and beyond to provide assistance and resources to the people who come to us.
Our efforts include phone banking and door-to-door outreach (block walking). We serve Dallas County, Tarrant County, and Collin County by acting as connectors to vital community services.
Mental health is still stigmatized in many Latino spaces. We bring awareness, compassion, support, and resources to those who have been traditionally underserved. No matter what’s happening, help is available.
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COMMUNITY HEALTH
The health disparity in Latino communities is appalling. Aside from language and cultural barriers, the healthcare system is riddled with barriers to access. We partner with community health workers to bring knowledge to where it’s needed the most. The Concilio takes a multi-faceted approach that includes educating families about healthy habits and providing healthcare resources and information. It’s how we meet people where they are.
Parents have an enormous influence over their children’s health habits. Our program teaches parents how they can model a healthy lifestyle and guide their children to make smart choices that lead to healthy behaviors.
HEALTHY KIDS, HEALTHY FAMILIES
In our Healthy Kids, Healthy Families program, families vulnerable to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease are encouraged to change from the inside out – by learning how to nourish their bodies and minds in a healthy way. Participants also receive 1-on-1 assistance with enrolling into federal programs, such as CHIP/Medicaid, and SNAP.
Our evidence-based, 8-week health program provides participants with access to nutrition education, healthy cooking demonstrations, fitness testing, physical activities, weekly check-in calls from the program team, and facilitated group discussion on the adverse effects of obesity such as diabetes. Classes are 1.5 hours, virtual or in-person; morning and evening sessions are also available.
An option for the whole family, students ages 6-18 are invited to join group sessions, physical activities, and cooking demonstrations with their parents.
COMPRANDO RICO Y SANO
Comprando Rico Y Sano (English translation: Buying Healthy and Flavorful Foods) improves the knowledge and behavior of healthy shopping and eating through culturally sensitive nutrition education and enrollment assistance into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
HEALTH BENEFIT ENROLLMENT: SNAP, CHIP, MEDICAID
We’ve seen a disparity in access to healthcare for members of the Latino community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our bilingual navigators assist families with benefit enrollment for SNAP, CHIP, and MEDICAID.
VACUNAS
People in low-income and hard to reach areas deserve COVID-19 vaccine access. That’s why we host vaccine clinics in these areas. We also provide messaging and education to local clinics to improve vaccination rates and get people fully protected. Bilingual nurses are always on hand to help patients.
We provide assistance through education and resources for historically marginalized groups such as new immigrants, older immigrants, and the black community. Our goal is to break down language and cultural barriers to establish trust.
POP-UP HEALTH CLINICS
We know that several factors prevent our Latino communities from getting vaccines: lack of information, education, and awareness; limited access to clinics, language barriers, work schedules, and limited or no health coverage. We saw an opportunity to make healthcare access easier by working with churches and other community organizations to provide Pop-Up Health Clinics, information, testing, and vaccines.
FINANCIAL STABILITY & EMPOWERMENT
From understanding the credit system to creating a budget, we provide the tools Latino families need to design a bright and beautiful future. Financial freedom and the American dream are within reach.
FINANCIAL WORKSHOPS
Financial literacy is the key to success. That’s why we’ve partnered with UnidosUS to provide education to the families we serve. Our workshops teach important strategies like creating a college fund, buying a home, establishing credit, managing debt, and household budgeting.
Latinos may now be Texas’ largest demographic group. They are estimated to make up 40.2% of the population of Texas, with non-Latino white Texans accounting for 39.4%. This early data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 population estimates “are the first to reflect the foreseeable culmination of decades of demographic shifts steadily transforming the state,” the Texas Tribune proclaimed.